


A Crown that Seldom Kings Enjoy

by Dragonflies_and_Katydids



Series: Dawn [5]
Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Fluff, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-06
Updated: 2015-06-06
Packaged: 2018-04-03 03:55:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4085719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragonflies_and_Katydids/pseuds/Dragonflies_and_Katydids
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An epilogue for <em>Exit Light</em>, because I totally have a crush on Cassandra and couldn't leave her out.  I just hope it isn't so sweet it makes everyone's teeth hurt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Crown that Seldom Kings Enjoy

**Author's Note:**

> My crown is called content, a crown that seldom kings enjoy.
> 
>  _Henry VI_ , Act III, scene 1

For the first time since Corypheus fell, Cullen leaves his paperwork at mid-afternoon to join Cassandra at the practice ring. She's surprised to see him, and by the way her eyes won't quite meet his, he knows the rumor mill has been grinding swiftly along. Suppressing a wince, he nods a greeting and chooses a dulled practice blade, trying to pretend there's nothing unusual about this practice.

As he'd expected, she's only too willing to take any excuse to avoid the conversation, putting her helmet on with what sounds very much like a sigh of relief. Inside the ring, everything else falls away, and they're back on familiar ground, the fight the only thing that matters. She grants him no quarter, and he does her the same courtesy in return, until they're both sweating and panting and they have to give the ring up to someone else, at least for a little while.

Standing at the fence with his helmet in his hands, Cullen takes a deep breath in through his nose, the wind off the mountains drying his damp hair and face. He smells sweat and leather and metal, mixed with the smell of dust from the ring and the smell of snow carried on the wind. His muscles ache from the fight, and his chest aches from something he can't put into words but that isn't unpleasant.

Beside him, Cassandra shifts her weight and blurts out, "I have no love for gossip."

In Cullen's experience, those words are usually a lie--no one gossips more than people who publicly scorn it--but in Cassandra's case, it's the simple truth. "I know," he says warily. He also knows where this conversation is going, but he's no more comfortable with it than she is, and he holds out a faint hope that if he makes it uncomfortable enough, she'll give up.

"There are...rumors...about you," she says, and he should have known she won't give up once she's decided to speak. She's nothing if not tenacious.

"If they involve Bull or Dorian, they're probably true," he says. If he can't avoid the conversation completely, then maybe he can keep it brief. Cassandra's discomfort is bringing back his own, and he wants so much to be at ease with what he did yesterday.

"Are you happy?" she asks, and Cullen turns to stare at her, more than a little taken aback.

As he blinks at her, he remembers the books he's caught her reading more than once, Varric's ridiculous trash with their out-sized heroes and overblown endings. "Am I what?"

"Are you happy?" She looks embarrassed, but her jaw is set mulishly.

"I'm trying to be," he answers, which is the best he can do right now. "It's...not easy."

"Is it worth it?" she asks, looking down at her gauntlets.

She's possibly the last person in Skyhold he expected to have this conversation with, but maybe that's his fault, letting her image as a Seeker overshadow the person inside the armor. He hesitates, then says quietly, "Yes."

The nod she gives him is exactly the same one she gives in the practice ring when he's won a match. "Good," she says briskly, and raises her helmet. "Another round?" she asks, a jerk of her chin indicating the practice ring, which is empty once again.

"I...yes, of course." Bemused, Cullen puts his own helmet back on and follows her into the ring.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [A Crown that Seldom Kings Enjoy [PODFIC]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4879654) by [Opalsong](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Opalsong/pseuds/Opalsong)




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